The Economic Competitiveness of Nicaragua: Financials Returns, Labor Productivity and International Gaps

Is Nicaragua competitive? With the globalization of markets, the increased mobility of corporate assets, and the need for productive human resources, this question has become all the more complex to answer. This report was prepared to tackle this question by focussing on certain fundamentals: financial performance and labor productivity.

In the former case, we are essentially interested in the degree to which firms operating in Nicaragua have fundamentally different financial structures and performance compared to firms located elsewhere. With respect to this view of competitiveness, if one were to invest or operate in Nicaragua, how would the firm’s asset structure likely vary compared to a firm operating in some other country in Latin America or average location in the world? In Nicaragua, do firms typically hold more cash and other short term assets, or do they concentrate their assets in physical plant and equipment? On the liability side, do firms operating in Nicaragua have a higher percent of payables compared to other firms operating in Latin America, or do they hold a higher concentration of long term debt? The structure of the income statement is also
telling. Do firms operating in Nicaragua have relatively higher costs of goods sold, operating costs, or income taxes compared to firms located elsewhere in the region or the world in general? Are returns on equity higher in Nicaragua? Are profit margins greater? Are inventories held longer? Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5 are designed to answer these and similar questions that naturally affect one’s decision to invest or operate in Nicaragua. In many instances, people make all the difference. In addition to financial competitiveness, this report considers the extent to which labor deployment and productivity in Nicaragua differs from regional and global benchmarks. In this case, we are interested in the amount of labor required to operate a typical business in Nicaragua and the likely returns on this human investment. What is the typical ratio of short-term and long-term assets to employee? What are typical capital-labor ratios? How different are these ratios to those in Latin America in general and the world as a whole? What are the average sales and net profits per employee in Nicaragua compared to regional benchmarks? Again, these and over 50 other measures of labor productivity are considered in Chapters 6, 7, and 8. The goal of this report is first to assist managers in gauging the competitive performance of Nicaragua at the global level. With the globalization of markets, greater foreign competition, and the reduction of entry barriers, it becomes all the more important to benchmark Nicaragua against other countries on a worldwide basis. Doing so, however, is not an obvious task. First, one needs to aggregate across firms in Nicaragua. Second, one needs to control for exchange rate volatility. Finally, one needs use comparable financial standards.

This report generates international benchmarks and measures gaps that might be revealed from such an exercise. First, data is collected from over 26,000 companies across all regions of the world. For each of these firms, data are standardized into comparable categories (assets, liabilities, income and ratios), by country, region and on a worldwide basis. From there, we eliminate all currency effects by standardizing within each category.

Though we heavily rely on historical performance, the figures reported are not historical but are forecasts and projections for the coming fiscal year.
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